


The Waiting Game

by mikkey_bones



Category: Free!
Genre: Arguing, Awkwardness, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Time, Free! Kink Meme, Friends With Benefits, High School, Male-Female Friendship, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:43:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkey_bones/pseuds/mikkey_bones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a moment of stupid overconfidence, Nagisa makes a challenge: if neither he nor Gou manage to get a kiss from their crush by the end of the school year, the two of them will have sex.  Unable to back down from a dare, especially one from Nagisa, Gou agrees.  Now the two of them have no choice but to help each other with their love lives, before it's too late.</p><p>(Nagisa finds that he doesn't really <i>want</i> to win the bet.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Waiting Game

**Author's Note:**

> Fill from the kink meme! The original request is [here](http://iwatobiswimclub.dreamwidth.org/893.html?thread=320125):
> 
> "Nagisa and Gou became fast friends because they have a lot in common. They get to talking about romance, and their despairs over not being able to hook up with who they want to hook up with (bonus if Gou is seeking after Haru and Nagisa is seeking after Makoto). They make a pact that if neither of them are successful by the end of the school year, they'll have sex (i'm sure they'd say it more elegantly than that). They're both cuties and don't know what they're doing, and probably argue in the process."
> 
> 11K+ words later, I have to say that I am officially on board this ship.

**_November_ **

Matsuoka Gou has a tiny scar on her right eyebrow – more like a little dent, really – and Nagisa’s not sure she even notices it anymore.  He’s always been like this, too observant for his own good, and he knows from experience that asking will only get him an unsettled look and strange treatment for the rest of the day.  Sometimes he looks at it when Gou is talking, even though it’s nearly invisible from a distance.

That’s what he’s looking at when he demands, “So how do you refer to yourself?  Is it Kou-chan, or is it Gou-chan?”  Because he knows what Gou _wants_ to be called, and he still thinks it’s probably cute to completely ignore that, as long as he treats her nicely in everything else.  And she answers to ‘Gou’ just as easily as she answers to ‘Kou,’ so Nagisa is wondering what she calls herself in her head.

Gou frowns at him.  “There’s no _-chan_!” she snaps, but doesn’t actually answer his question.  “Have you even done anything for the last five minutes?”  She leans closer to him to look at his drawings.  They’ve been working on recruitment posters; Nagisa got distracted halfway through his second one.  “Typical.”

He whines at the judgment in her voice and slumps down onto the table.  “Can’t we just get these copied?  It would be easier...”  He reaches out with a lazy hand and halfheartedly picks up a marker before dropping it back onto the table.  “They’re fine the way they are...”

“No!” Gou says, and shakes him by the shoulder.  “We have to make them by hand; we don’t have enough money for copies!”

“But Haru-chan and Mako-chan and Rei-chan already left,” Nagisa whines and slides further off his chair.  He contemplates just letting himself fall onto the floor altogether, but doesn’t think that Gou would be taken in by those kinds of hysterics.  “If they don’t have to do the work, then why do we?”  Anyway, he’s getting hungry.

“Rei is studying,” Gou snaps, tossing a marker at him.  It bounces off his shoulder and clatters to the floor.  “And Haru and Mako–”

Nagisa turns his head so that he can watch Gou as she talks, interrupting her without remorse.  “Haru-chan,” he says, taking a new tactic to distract them from the posters.

Gou looks at him, coloring slightly.  “What?”

Nagisa heaves a theatrical sigh.  “Gou-chan is so _obvious_ ,” he says, and oozes back into a sitting position, turning in his seat so that he’s facing Gou completely.  “He was just lazy, right? But you have a soft spot.”  He gives her his best innocent grin.

“I–” Gou begins defensively, before she slumps and looks away with a sigh.  “It’s not like there’s a point,” she says, and Nagisa congratulates himself on being right.  As usual.  He’s learned a lot about reading girls, mostly because he’s constantly defending himself against his sisters’ attentions.  “I don’t think he’s looked at girls in his life.”

“Or guys, probably,” Nagisa chirps, even though he saw (who didn’t?) the way that Haru looked at (and treated) Rin.  Gou probably doesn’t want to hear that Haru has the hots for her older brother, though.  “You wouldn’t be the first person he rejected, either,” he adds brightly.  “There was this _one_ girl at the end of fifth grade–”

“Okay!” Gou snaps and Nagisa’s grin widens.  “I’m trying hard, though,” she adds, looking genuinely crestfallen as she stares at their posters on the table.  Now that he’s looking at them with an impartial eye... well, Nagisa has no problems admitting that he’s probably not cut out to be an artist, and neither is Gou.  “It’s just that nothing seems to be working.”

She looks like she’s actually sad.  Nagisa is torn between his desire to continue gossiping and the desire to make her feel better.  He hates it when people are _actually_ sad.  Maybe he can satisfy both desires in one.  He puts his arms back on the table and uses them as a pillow for his head as he lays it back down.  “I know how you feel,” he says, letting a tinge of melancholy to seep into his voice.

Gou blinks.  Sympathy probably wasn’t what she expected.  Proof that she and Nagisa don’t know each other well enough yet.  “What?”

“He went off with Mako-chan, right?” Nagisa asks, and feels restless enough that he has to sit straight again in order to fidget in his seat.  It’s embarrassing that he can’t even meet Gou’s eyes right now; that’s how he knows he’s talking about something important.  “They always do that.  Haru-chan and... him.  No matter how hard I try–”

Because Nagisa isn’t watching, he misses the way Gou’s eyes widen, first with surprise and then _delight_.  “You, Nagisa, have a crush on Makoto-senpai?” she asks, leaning forward in her chair.  Nagisa looks up to that sight.  “A crush?  You _like_ him?”

Nagisa looks away almost immediately.  “Well, like is a strong word, but...”

“He has _such_ great muscles,” Gou gushes, and Nagisa frowns.

“Keep your fantasies to the guy that _you_ like!” he snaps.  He’s not actually jealous, but, well, Makoto has never shown much interest in guys so there’s always the horrible possibility that Gou has more of a chance than Nagisa does.  Then again, Makoto has never paid much attention to girls, either.  Just Haru.  And his siblings.  The thought makes Nagisa sigh.  “They’re always together, anyway,” he said, letting his head fall back onto his arms on the table.  “It’s horrible.  I probably couldn’t get a date with him if I tried.”

“Or he would think you just wanted to get food with him and talk about the team, or Haru or Rei or my brother,” Gou says.

She’s taking too much delight in his pain, Nagisa decides, so he turns the conversation back around to her.  “And if you asked Haru-chan out, he would probably just reject you outright,” he retorts, letting a little hint of cattiness into his voice.  She deserves it!  “Or he wouldn’t even understand what you were trying to do.”

Gou blushes. Nagisa feels a perverse satisfaction.  “Fine!” she says.  “I’ll make a bet with you.”

That perks Nagisa up.  He’s a born gambler, even though he doesn’t play with money.  He sits up again and grins, his former bad mood forgotten.  “Is it like a dare?  A challenge bet?”

Gou’s eyes are gleaming as she leans in.  “If you don’t get a kiss from Makoto-senpai by the end of the year, you have to photograph every member of the swim team, shirtless, and print me glossy posters!  Samezuka’s team, too!  Everyone except my brother!”

Nagisa leans in too, unable to resist a challenge.  “Okay, but if _you_ don’t get a kiss from Haru-chan by the end of the year, you have to buy me whatever I want from the dessert cafe for a week!  Anything!  Everything!”

“Fine!” Gou says.  Her eyes are practically sparkling now as she radiates determination.  “And what if neither of us gets dates?”

Nagisa thinks about it.  It’s the end of November right now, which means they have four months to work on this challenge.  Four months is plenty of time, right?  There’s no way he won’t get a date by then.  He’s cute enough, and Mako is fond of him...

“We’ll kiss!” he declares at the same time as Gou.  Their noses are nearly touching and as they realize that they actually said the same thing, they recoil automatically, staring at each other.

“Actually,” Nagisa says, “a kiss is too easy.”  He frowns.  “We could kiss right now.  That’s no kind of incentive.”

Gou eyes him.  “Fine,” she says.  “What do you suggest?”

It has to be something that neither of them would choose if they weren’t losers.  And it also has to be something you would do with a crush, mostly because Nagisa wants to keep with the theme.  So what could be bad?  He knows he’s going to win, anyway.

“Sex,” he declares after a few moments of concentration, meeting Gou’s gaze with a triumphant look.  “We’ll have sex.”

She blushes and looks away instantly, and Nagisa laughs because her face almost matches her hair.  He’s _sure_ that she’s going to say no and honestly, he wouldn’t complain if she did, because this is a lot to ask.  But instead, after a few seconds, she turns back and meets his eyes with a look of determination.  “Fine,” she says.  “Sex.”

They shake on it, and decide to scrap the posters in favor of working out strategies to approach the boys.  After all, Haru and Mako are basically inseparable, and anyway, two heads are better than one.

**_December_ **

“I can’t believe it,” Nagisa sighs.  It’s a month into their bet and neither of them has been lucky enough to talk to Haru or Mako by themselves, let alone ask them somewhere or kiss them or get _anywhere_ closer to win the bet.  “I even asked him to build a snowman with me!”

He’s lying on his back with his head pillowed on Gou’s thigh; they’re sitting on the floor in her room, ostensibly studying for a math test that they have together.  Gou’s mother conveniently assumed that ‘Nagisa’ was a girl’s name and allowed the study session to take place while she was off at work.  Nagisa likes her already.

Gou frowns down at him.  “So what happened?” she demands.  This isn’t a really flattering angle for her, Nagisa thinks as he looks up idly.  If the lighting was better he could probably see her nose hairs.  He doesn’t particularly want to think about that.

“He invited Haru-chan and Ren-chan and Ran-chan too,” Nagisa says, slightly miserable.  “It was fun,” he adds, because he did have a great time.  “But that’s not the point!  I only asked _him_ , I didn’t ask Haru-chan... _or_ the twins,” he adds darkly.  He loves children, most of the time, but they had thought it would be hilarious if they pelted snowballs at him.  They only took mercy on him when Mako intervened.

Sympathetic, Gou begins to pet his hair, and Nagisa closes his eyes.  He thinks he could get used to this.  “So how have you been doing?” he asks, even though they compare notes every week and he’s been consistently doing better than Gou.

As expected, she stops petting his hair; he makes a noise of frustration and rolls over, taking his head out of her lap and sitting up to get a better view of her face.  She looks discouraged.

“What happened?” he asks, his voice bright even though he’s trying (sort of) to be sympathetic.  Even though Gou is his friend, a week of free desserts is nothing to scoff at, and Nagisa can be very competitive when he wants to.

Gou shrugs.  “We have really different schedules, and I wasn’t exactly friends with him from before.  I have a hard time talking to him.  And when I did–”

“So you did talk to him!” Nagisa says, and claps.

Gou’s expression doesn’t lighten.  “I started by talking about swimming, and then he asked how my brother was, and then he talked about my brother, and then he told me he was training hard, so I shouldn’t worry about next season,” she says rather miserably.

Nagisa can’t help but laugh.  It’s not because of anything that Gou did; rather, he can perfectly imagine Haru behaving like that.  “How horrible,” he says.  “Still clueless.”

Gou nods.  Nagisa flops back down into her lap.  “We’ll have to think of new strategies,” he says.  “Do you think a double date would work out?  You and me and Haru-chan and Mako-chan?”

As Gou considers that, her fingers find their way back into his hair; Nagisa closes his eyes and makes a noise of appreciation.  “Maybe,” she says.  “But they might just go off without us.”

“They won’t,” Nagisa says with confidence he doesn’t feel.  Haru is inattentive and lazy and Mako is a great friend and all, but not nearly boyfriend material (at least not without a little work); as soon as Haru got distracted and wandered off, Mako would make his apologies in order to follow along.  He sighs and pretends it’s with pleasure at the way Gou is now giving him a scalp massage.

“So, do you want to work on math?” he asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“No,” Gou says honestly.

Nagisa grins.  “Me neither.  Let me show you this great video I found.”  He sits up, careful not to hit Gou in the chin, and scrambles to pull over her laptop, bringing up YouTube without waiting for permission.  “You like cats, right?”

Of course she does.  Who doesn’t?

**_January_ **

They try Nagisa’s plan during their winter break.  It’s just him and Gou and Haru and Mako, heading to the local diner.  Nagisa lures Mako by saying it’s an officer’s meeting, and Haru comes a) because he’s vice president of the swim club, technically (what do vice presidents even _do_ , anyway? nothing, as far as Nagisa is concerned), and b) because Mako is coming and, once again, they’re attached at the hip, more or less.

Gou and Nagisa meet up earlier in order to work on dressing up.  On his way to Gou’s place, he passes a pastry shop, and enters on a whim to buy a box of macarons.  It’s not _too_ expensive, and he feels like he should bring something.  Christmas was only a week ago, after all, and the holidays are a time for gift giving.

Besides, Gou is going to pay back this _and more_ when he wins the bet.  He has them tie the box with a red ribbon that matches his coat, and whistles as he continues to Gou’s place, sneaking in through the back door (as usual) in order to avoid Rin and Gou’s mother, who still thinks that he is a girl.

“Merry Christmas!” he announces brightly as Gou lets him in, pressing the box into her arms with a grin.  “I stopped by a shop on the way, and I thought you would like this.  You like sweet things, right?”

Of course she does.  Once they had all gotten ice cream together and she ate two strawberry shortcake bars. Nagisa remembers because he was eyeing both but didn’t get the second one in time, and so he had to eat one strawberry shortcake bar and one chocolate fudgesicle, which wasn’t nearly as good.

Gou flushes slightly as she takes the box.  “Th-thank you,” she says, and Nagisa beams, glad that he could catch her off guard so easily.  “Come on,” she adds, grabbing him by the arm.  They go to her room.  “I got you something too,” she says once the door is safely shut behind them.

Nagisa looks on with curiosity as she rummages through her drawers and brings out a scarf.  It’s blue and yellow, their team colors; Gou doesn’t meet his eyes as she holds it out to him.  Nagisa accepts with wide eyes.

“I didn’t make it,” she says as soon as the scarf leaves her hand.  “I was shopping for my mother and I saw this and thought, well, it’s our colors, right? But it wouldn’t look good on me...”

Nagisa barely listens to her; he’s too busy throwing off his old royal blue scarf and donning this one instead.  It’s new and a gift and he loves it, so he can’t resist wearing it; anyway, since it’s the team colors maybe Mako will notice and compliment him on them.  He moves to admire himself in Gou’s mirror.  The yellow and blue clashes horribly with his red jacket, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.  “I love it!” he declares.  “Thank you, Gou-chan!”

Gou’s grin is relieved.  “You don’t deserve it,” she says anyway.  “It’s _Kou_ -chan, remember? Not _Gou_ -chan.”

Nagisa ignores her, checking the time on his phone.  “We don’t have long,” he says, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he looks at her.  “Are you wearing mascara?  It looks good.  You should put on eyeliner.  Do you think I need some?”

Gou rolls her eyes at his nervous babble, stepping close to the mirror herself and giving her outfit and face a critical once-over.  “I don’t think I need eyeliner,” she says, and her reflection shoots Nagisa a look.  “Neither do _you_.”

Nagisa shrugs.  He doesn’t think he needs eyeliner either, but he knows that he looks good in it, because that’s one of the _many_ cosmetics that his sisters have forced him to wear over the years.  (It’s gotten to the point where he’s actually pretty good applying them himself.)  “Okay, then are you ready?”  He checks his phone again.  Mako hasn’t texted yet, which means they’re not there yet, which is good, because he took the train to get to Gou’s place and they have to walk five blocks to the diner.

“Yeah,” Gou says and finally tears herself away from her reflection.  She smoothes her hands down over her jacket one last time.  “Let’s go then.”

Nagisa leaves his scarf on Gou’s bed (he can get it later) and sneaks out the same way he came in, out the back door and around the side of the house (in a hurry, in case Rin-chan happens to be looking out his window), through the gate and out to the street to wait for Gou a safe distance away.  She joins him in a few minutes, face flushed.  “You ready?”

“Sure,” Nagisa replies with a grin, grabbing her by the arm and hurrying her down the street.  His new scarf is warm and while he walks he finds himself practically snuggling in it.

True to form, Mako is already there when they finally arrive, a reluctant looking Haru, hands in his pockets, in tow.  Nagisa grins as he sees them and lets go of Gou to run the last few steps and throw his arms around Mako.

Even though Mako might not be interested in him like _that_ , at least not yet (and there’s still three months left in their bet), he still gives great hugs.  “Hey, Nagisa-kun.”

“Mako-chan!” Nagisa says, and then, belatedly, “Haru-chan!  Look at my scarf!”  He takes a few steps back to display it for them.  “Gou-chan bought it for me. It’s the team colors!”

Mako looks at his scarf and then at Gou, who chose to walk the last few steps and is coming up to them now.  “Is that so?” he asks.

Nagisa’s not sure what that tone is supposed to mean.  “Yep!” he says anyway, keeping the cute and oblivious smile on his face anyway.  That’s what Mako is used to, so that’s what he’ll get.  And anyway, he thinks as he grabs Mako’s arm and presses himself to Mako’s side, being innocent and cute has its perks.  “Everyone’s here, let’s sit down, I’m starving!”

Mako laughs and lets himself be dragged along; Gou falls into step next to Haru behind them.  Nagisa strains to hear their conversation, but he has to keep up his stream of chatter about midterms and math tests and macarons (he’s not sure how they slip their way into the rambling story) so he doesn’t get to pay attention to the two of them until they all sit down.  They’ve got a booth with Mako and Nagisa on one side (Nagisa made sure of that) and Haru and Gou on the other.  Nagisa meets Gou’s eyes and winks.

“So what are we here for?” Haru asks immediately, blunt as usual, while the rest of them are picking up menus.

Nagisa thinks fast, but Gou beats him to the punch.  “We’re talking about next season,” she says.  “And getting dinner with friends!” she adds with a smile.

Nagisa nods and, not to be beaten, adds, “Since you two are second years, we never get to see you!  We missed being with you.”

Mako raises his eyebrows.  “What about Rei-kun?”

What about Rei indeed.  Since the end of the swimming season, Nagisa has been seeing Rei slightly less, but they still got together for their morning jogs.  And math tutoring, occasionally, but Nagisa does his best to distract.  “He’s busy studying for his tests,” Nagisa improvises, feeling guilty but not quite guilty enough to stop lying.  He channels his guilt into a genuinely sad expression.  “I invited him, but he said he’d rather not come.”

“And maybe we lied a little about talking about next season,” Gou said, looking sheepish.  Nagisa casts a sharp glance at her – that’s _brave_.  She might be winning.

But, he reminds himself, if it’s any consolation she’s up against Haru, who is probably– _definitely_ a bigger challenge than Mako.

Gou’s candidness doesn’t get her or Nagisa very far, though.  By the end of the lunch, they haven’t really talked about anything, Haru has silently finished off a plate of rice and fish, and they’re splitting up the bill.  Nagisa’s so desperate that, when Mako is telling Haru that he’ll cover him, he contemplates trying to play footsie with him.  But that’s too risky and anyway, Mako would probably ask him what he was doing out _loud_ , in front of everyone.  How embarrassing.

Instead, he pays for his own meal and Gou pays for hers.  They dawdle while Haru and Mako leave, until it’s just the two of them standing outside the diner.

“That was terrible,” Gou says, sounding disheartened.

Usually Nagisa would try to say something that made her feel better, or try to make himself happy at her expense, but right now neither option seems like much of a priority.  He sighs deeply.  “Come on, let’s get something to drink.”  There’s a convenience store with a vending machine nearby.

“I’m not thirsty,” Gou says, but follows him anyway and gets a canned coffee while Nagisa gets himself strawberry milk.  It’s a consolation prize, not that either of them really deserve a prize.

They’re walking aimlessly along one of Iwatobi’s packed dirt streets, Gou sipping her coffee and Nagisa his strawberry milk, when Gou speaks again.

“I’m trying everything,” she says, sounding like she might even cry, “and he doesn’t notice.  And it’s winter now, and I have cram school so I can’t go to all the afternoon practices to see him, and it’s frustrating!”

Nagisa looks at her carefully, eyes drawn first to the tiny scar on her eyebrow, then down to her eyes, which are filling with tears.  “You’ll smudge your mascara, Gou-chan,” he points out.

“It’s _Kou_!” she snaps, nearly yelling.

There are very few options left to Nagisa in this situation.  He can’t keep teasing, because then she would really cry.  And he can’t change the subject, because that would probably make her cry too, what with the way she’s giving him an accusatory look.  “Okay,” he says and takes a breath.  “ _Kou_ -chan.”

She smiles, and her mascara doesn’t run.

**_February_ **

The end of the school year is approaching and Nagisa feels their agreement hanging over him like a blade just waiting to drop.  He thinks that Kou feels the same, because she’s started to get a little more skittish with him.  There aren’t any more late-afternoon “study sessions” that turn into gossip sessions, and they don’t spend as much time walking and talking together as they used to.

It shouldn’t bother Nagisa, logically.  He has more important things to worry about, like the fact that he still hasn’t gotten a kiss from Mako after all this time, even though he had been so confident about his chances for success back in November.  He should also probably be worried about his grades in math and chemistry, which continue to suffer, or his performance at swimming, which is good, but not great.  He needs to work out more.  He should be spending his newfound free time going to the gym or studying or even trying to talk to Mako again.

Instead, he’s moping in his room.

He pretends it’s because of Mako, even though he knows himself well enough to realize that it’s been too long since he’s actually stared at Mako’s breathtakingly green eyes and thought _I want you_.  So he tries to think about Mako: his broad back, his warm smile, his tight hugs.  Nagisa imagines Mako’s hands on his body as he slides his own hands up into his shirt.

He imagines Mako sliding on top of him, Mako’s weight pinning him to the bed, Mako licking a long, slow stripe up his throat.  Mako’s breath warm on his cheek.

His phone chirps twice and Nagisa, who had been closing his eyes and very determinedly concentrating on _Mako_ , is distracted enough that he bounds up to check it immediately.

_Kou-chan: I just talked to Haru_

_Kou-chan:_ (*＾ワ＾*)

Nagisa frowns.  What is that supposed to mean?  She sent a smiling face, so does that mean it was a good talk?  And if it was...

He hasn’t actually considered the fact that Kou might win their bet.  His scenarios have always been him winning, and getting a week’s worth of full desserts, or both of them losing, and then... following through with their agreement.

 _How did it go?_ he texts and then, for verisimilitude, adds a ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ so he sounds happier than he actually feels.

As he waits for a reply he thinks of going back to his fantasy about Mako.  But it hadn’t been doing much for him, and trying to actually get aroused and finish up would take too much time.  Instead he squirms on his bed, tossing his phone up and catching it.

A chirp: he opens it immediately.

 _Kou-chan: Really well!  He said he was glad I managed the team and I asked if he wanted to get food with me sometime and he said maybe if there was fish_ ~!!!!!!!!＼(^▽^＠)ノ

Maybe, if there was fish.  That isn’t a yes, not really, but Nagisa knows Haru well enough to know that it is most definitely not a _no_ , and that he’s probably warming up to Kou.  The thought doesn’t make him happy; he doesn’t want to lose, even though his punishment (photographing the swimming club members and printing the photos) isn’t actually so bad.

It takes him a while to figure out how to respond.  Eventually, he texts back a listless, _Good job! Good luck!_ and doesn’t add a smiley so maybe she’ll realize that he’s not exactly happy about this new development.

Predictably, she doesn’t.  Moments later, his cell phone lights up again.

 _Kou-chan: Thank you~~~!!!!_ ＼(^▽^＠)ノ

The same stupid smiley face.

_Kou-chan: How are things going with Mako-senpai??_

_I’m txting him right now_ (´ヮ`), Nagisa lies.  Then, after the text has been sent, he looks at his phone.  He could actually text Mako right now.  He did have a phase of trying that, back in November, but gave up when it became clear that Mako viewed his phone as a lower priority than, well, basically anything else in his life, and rarely replied – and when he _did_ reply, it was clear that he was distracted.

 _Kou-chan: Good for you!!! I won’t bug you then~~_ ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Instead of replying, Nagisa puts his phone back on his nightstand and flops down onto his bed again, staring at the ceiling.  He’s not texting Mako and maybe Kou didn’t actually talk to Haru.  Maybe these are the comforting fictions they come up with to make it seem like they’re not totally screwed in this bet and that Nagisa’s wild stipulation ( _if we’re both losers, then we have to have sex!_ ) isn’t about to come true.

He could lie, Nagisa supposes, and say that he and Mako shared a steamy first kiss in the locker room.  He could get desperate, run up to Mako in full view of everyone, plant one on his lips, and then say he tripped.

Nagisa knows the situation is desperate when he’s _actually considering this_.Anyway, if he did that, Kou probably wouldn’t accept that as a valid kiss, at least not in the sense that they meant originally, where two people like each other and go on dates and _then_ kiss.

As a last result, Nagisa supposes that he and Kou could always call off the bet.  If things are that bad and they’re both really nervous, there’s really no point in following through with it.  Obviously, Nagisa isn’t going to cancel the bet until there’s really no other choice.  Sex...

He thinks about it.

Sex with _Kou_....

It makes him nervous.  But it’s not a totally abhorrent idea.  As an experiment, he starts imagining Gou straddling him instead of Mako, her shirt off, her bra (red, of course, and slightly lacy because that’s how Nagisa would want it) practically in his face, as she slides her hands up into his shirt.  Her lips on his neck.

Nagisa swallows as he realizes he’s more aroused than he thought he would get, and in such a short time.  Before he can decide to do with that knowledge, his phone chirps again.  Desperate to distract himself, Nagisa grabs it.

 _Kou-chan: I didn’t actually talk to Haru_.

**_March_ **

They decide to meet at Nagisa’s house, because his sisters all live somewhere else and his parents are on an early vacation.  It’s convenient.  They schedule the meeting three days after the end of year celebrations, so that they have time to recover from their exams (in Nagisa’s case, the exams he’d neglected to study for until he had no choice but to stay up all night for two days in a row).

Kou is coming over after lunch.  Nagisa is so nervous that he actually starts cleaning the house, taking care of all the dishes he’s let pile up in the sink since his parents left last week.  He washes them, dries them, and puts them away, then takes out the trash and works on sorting out the piles of book and notebooks and papers that have amassed in his room from the winter vacation onward.

He tells himself he’s behaving like Rei, laughs, and continues to clean.

Kou rings the doorbell at one-thirty p.m.  Nagisa nearly runs to open it, and they stare at each other.

“Sorry I’m late, I had to–” Kou says at the same time Nagisa blurts, “It’s okay if you don’t want to–”

They both shut their mouths again and stare at each other for a few more seconds.  Nagisa thinks he’s blushing; Kou is flushed too.  Finally, jerkily, he steps aside to unblock the doorway; Kou steps inside hurriedly and Nagisa shuts the door behind her.

“I had to shower,” Kou says.  Nagisa is hyperaware of how close she is.  And how she smells like shampoo.  Strawberry shampoo.  He swallows.  “That’s why I was late.”

Nagisa locks the door and it makes an ominous click.  He turns back to Kou.  “If you don’t want to do this,” he says, “it’s okay.”

Kou raises her eyebrows at him.  “Do _you_ want to do this?” she asks, her tone challenging.

 _Yes_ , Nagisa thinks, but they don’t have the type of relationship where they can be that honest.  Not when it’s a dare or a bet or a challenge, like this.  “I cleaned my room,” he says instead.  If Kou took a shower, and he cleaned his room (and showered, but that was in the morning, maybe he should have hopped in again just to be _extra_ clean), that probably means they both want this, at least a little bit.

Kou nods, as if she can read his mind.  Nagisa swallows again.  “Come on,” he says, and moves past her to lead the way to his room.

With Kou behind him, Nagisa looks at the decor with new eyes: it’s blend of childlike, thanks to his own additions, and sophisticated, thanks to his mother, who has a stack of designer magazines she keeps in her bedroom in a wicker basket.  He turns to Kou.  “Okay.”

Kou meets his eyes.  “I’m ready,” she says, but she’s not taking her clothes off or anything like that.

“Right,” Nagisa says with a giggle that’s little too high-pitched and breathless to sound genuine, and strips off his shirt.  He’s been ramping up training in the hope of swimming competitively again next year; his muscles are looking pretty god and Kou will probably like that, if nothing else.

“Shouldn’t we kiss or something?”  Instead of looking at him in awe, Kou seems skeptical.  “To get started.  We can’t just... _go_ for it.”

“I know that!” Nagisa says, trying to appear confident, even though (to be honest) he had forgotten about anything like that.  He moves tentatively closer to Kou, seeking permission before he puts his hands on her waist.

Apparently impatient with his hesitation, Kou leans forward to smash their lips together.  Their noses hit too, painfully, and Nagisa feels tears well up in his eyes.  “Ow!”

“Well, sorry,” Kou says, not looking sorry even though she pulls back.  “You weren’t cooperating.”

Nagisa is pretty sure that his cooperation (or lack thereof) was not the root of the problem here.  “Sure,” he says, and this time he initiates the kiss, tilting his head to the side to make sure they don’t accidentally hit each other in the face again.  It’s not his first kiss and, after a few seconds, he is fairly certain that this isn’t Kou’s first kiss either.  Once they get a feel for it, she responds eagerly, pushing him back further into the room, towards the bed.

Well, Nagisa thinks, he can live with this.  He slides his hands under her shirt, pressing them against warm skin, and kisses back, though he lets Kou take the lead and decide when to deepen the kiss and when to stop.  Finally, she pulls back, her flush slightly darker.  Nagisa watches her lips, which are a little swollen.

“Okay,” she says.  “That wasn’t bad.”

Impishly, Nagisa pulls her close as he reaches up with one hand and pulls the rubber band from her hair, tossing it on the floor and laughing as her hair falls down like a burgundy curtain.

“Hey!” Kou says and smacks him.

It hurts, and Nagisa steps back to give her a betrayed look.  “I was just helping you get your clothes off,” he says with extra, syrupy innocence.

By now, Kou knows him well enough to know when he’s deliberately playing innocent (and anyway, in this situation, it’s not that hard to realize).  She glares at him, tilts her chin up proudly, and whisks off her shirt.  Her bra is white with small black polka dots.  It’s not exactly what Nagisa would fantasize about, though he does like the lace trim that lines the tops of the cups.

“Is that your fancy bra?” he asks, genuinely curious.

“Shut up,” Kou says and colors, looking away.  She’s self-conscious again.

As a swimmer who was very pointedly and deliberately unselfconscious, Nagisa took a while during junior high to understand why someone would be nervous about their body.  He’s still not quite sure what to do in this situation.  Improvising, he moves forward to stand in front of Kou again, resting his hands lightly on her sides and leaning in to give her a quick kiss.  “I like it a lot.”  Boldly, he reaches up to run his finger along the lace, touching her skin.  “Especially that part.”

She shivers and then smacks him away.

“What?” Nagisa whines.  “Isn’t it okay if I touch you like that?”

Kou is flushed and glaring, but she doesn’t look self-conscious anymore, and Nagisa would gladly take the former over the latter any day.  “Maybe,” she says.  “Get on the bed.”

Nagisa grins and complies, hopping up to sit on his bed.  “Should I take my pants off too?” he asks cheerfully.

Kou hesitates, then waves a hand.  “Okay.”  As he undoes the button and zipper of his jeans, she shimmies out of her skirt and tights.  She’s wearing panties that match her bra.  Nagisa thinks it’s adorable but keeps the thought to himself as he tosses his jeans onto the floor.

“So,” Nagisa begins, licking his lips and watching Kou standing in the middle of the room.  “Do you have, um, experience?”  He’s nervous enough that he can’t make his question as joking or insinuating as he would normally want to; he shifts on the bed and feels very exposed even though he’s still in his briefs.

“I had a boyfriend last year,” Kou says.  “We messed around.”  Implied in her statement is the fact that they didn’t actually have sex; Nagisa can tell that much.  But he hasn’t had sex either.  “I read some articles,” Kou blurts, and then flushes.  “Do you have condoms?”

He prepared that much.  “Yes!”

“And lubricant?”

“Yes.”  That, he stole from his sister Naoko’s room.  She would never miss it, probably, especially since she was at university right now.  She doesn’t even know Nagisa knows where she hides her things.

“Do you know how to put on a condom?” Kou continues, giving him a hard look.

Nagisa is affronted.  “Of course!” he says, if only because he had read some articles too and practiced diligently for an hour or two the other day to ensure that he didn’t look like an idiot in front of Kou.

“Okay,” Kou says, apparently relenting.  She comes over to the bed like she’s determined to get it over with.

“Hey,” Nagisa says and offers her an attempted grin.  He’s sure it comes out a little shakier than he intends.  “We can’t just _go_ for it.”  He scoots forward and puts his hands on her hips again, drawing her closer so that, while he’s sitting on the bed, she’s standing between his legs.  “We can make this fun, don’t you think?”

Kou frowns a little, but then, probably in response to his _ultra-cute_ smile, relents.  “Okay,” she says.  “I’m really nervous.”

“Me too!” Nagisa replies brightly.  He slides his hands up to her waist and leans in for another kiss.

Kou kisses back.  She’s actually really good at it, Nagisa thinks, now that he’s made an effort to make her (and himself) less nervous.  He wonders exactly what she got up to with her boyfriend, and contemplates being jealous.  He’s never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend before, though he’s messed around a little bit too.  He’s not nearly as experienced as Kou, though, and it’s a bit disconcerting.

At least one of them know what they’re doing, for now.  In a moment of caprice, Nagisa wraps his arms more tightly around Kou and falls back onto the bed, pulling her with him.  He laughs as she squawks ungracefully, flails, nearly knees him in the groin (but misses), and finally ends up straddling his waist, glaring down at him with her hair falling in her face.

“You look nice like that,” Nagisa says, and he’s only half doing that to tease her.  Her weight is pleasant and this is awfully like his fantasy.  “You should kiss my neck,” he suggests, because what kind of person would he be if he missed an opportunity to live out his dreams?

“No,” Kou says because she’s stubborn.

Nagisa grins.  “Then I’ll kiss your neck.”

Kou flushes.  “N-no.”

“Come on,” Nagisa says, and gets an idea.  He’s never tried it in real life, but... it could probably work.  It works in theory.  And in the movies on the internet that he’s not supposed to watch but watches anyway.  (Doesn’t everyone?)  “You should lie on your back.  It’ll be fun.”  He grins innocently at Kou.

Kou gives him a long, suspicious look, then gets off of him to lie on her back in his bed.  This is a bit different than Nagisa planned (usually, he likes other people to take initiative so he can just lie on his back and enjoy the benefits) but he’ll work with it.

He straightens, looks down at Kou, and loses a bit of his confidence when he remembers that Kou is a real, live person stretched out in front of him, and he has to figure out what to do to give her pleasure.  He swallows and rests a hand on her stomach.

“Don’t you dare tickle me,” Kou says, and tempting as that might be, Nagisa knows he would probably just get kicked in the head for it.

“I won’t,” he promises with a grin, and moves to press his lips to her stomach.  He doesn’t miss the small shiver at his actions, nor does he miss the way that Kou gasps when Nagisa kisses up to her chest.  His gestures are clumsy and he feels a little like a chicken pecking seed (the least attractive comparison ever), but she doesn’t seem to mind it when he finally press his lips to her neck.

On a whim, he licks a stripe up her jugular.

“Ew,” Kou says.

Nagisa wrinkles his nose too.  “Yeah.  Sorry about that.”  He leans down and kisses the slimy trail he left as an apology.  As he kisses Kou’s neck, he realizes he should probably do something with his hands.  After a moment’s hesitation, he places one lightly on her breast, feeling the silky material of her bra.  That’s the first time he’s actually touched a girl there before.

“Is that okay?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Kou says and then, after a moment’s pause, “You don’t have much experience, do you.”

Nagisa finds himself coloring and pulls away from Kou.  “What makes you say that?” he demands and then backs off immediately.  “You’re right, I don’t.”  He looks away.  “This is, um, really my first time.”

Kou laughs.  “It’s okay.  Should I tell you what to do?”

The offer takes Nagisa by surprise, but then he actually considers it, and smiles with relief.  “Could you?  I think... yeah.  Please.”

“Okay,” Kou says and squirms a bit on the bed to get more comfortable.  Now that she gets to be the one in charge, she seems a lot more comfortable.  “Don’t just kiss my neck.  That’s kind of boring.  You can suck on it, too.”

“Right,” Nagisa says.  He feels like he should be protesting a bit more, instead of letting Kou tell him what to do this easily... but on the other hand, it’s kind of attractive.  At least, when she tells him what to do, he starts to get a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach, like he wants her to boss him around some more.  Even though she’s already _so_ bossy.

“And straddle me,” Kou adds, so he does so, feeling his bare chest rub against the silky material of her bra as he leans forward to press his lips to her neck again.  He’s definitely feeling aroused now; his heartbeat is speeding up and his briefs feel a little tighter on him.  This time he tries sucking, which elicits a gasp from Kou.  Encouraged, Nagisa moves to another area, and sucks harder.

Kou gasps louder.  “N-not so much,” she says, pushing at Nagisa’s head with a hand.  “You’ll leave a mark.  You should... move down.  Where it won’t show.”

Nagisa grins.  If there’s anything he loves, it’s breaking the rules.  That, and secrets.  Leaving marks on Kou’s body would apply to both of those categories.  He kisses her collarbone, then sucks _hard_ at the area, making Kou gasp sharply.

This could be fun, Nagisa thinks.

“I want you to– I want you to–” Kou begins, and when she doesn’t finish her sentence, Nagisa lifts his head to look at her.  She’s blushing and refuses to meet his eyes.

“Just ask for it,” Nagisa, who has very little patience and the sex-drive of a sixteen year old boy, demands.

Kou flushes darker, if possible.  “I want you to put your hand down there,” she manages, gesturing vaguely at her crotch.  “And rub.  Over, over my underwear.”

Nagisa grins.  “Okay,” he chirps because he’s delighted that Kou is actually asking for something like this.  Even though she’s the one giving the orders, it makes him feel a little more in control.  He moves down towards the foot of the bed, spreading Kou’s legs so he can rest comfortably in between them.  Then he reaches out, hesitates, and rubs at Kou’s crotch, frowning because he’s not sure if he’s doing it exactly right.

He gives Kou a questioning look, she’s biting her lip.  “Go in circles,” she says.

He complies, and feels Kou’s muscles clench under his hand.  She’s wet – at least, he can feel the wetness seeping through her underwear.  Impulsively, he leans down to kiss her hipbone, just above that lace edging on her underwear that she likes so much.

“G-go faster,” Kou says, and Nagisa complies.

For some reason, the increased speed makes Kou flinch.  “Ow!  Not harder!  Just faster!  Don’t press down so much,” she snaps, and Nagisa complies again, realizing that he _had_ increased the pressure along with the speed.

“This is complicated,” he complains against her hipbone.

“Deal with it,” Kou retorts, but her voice is a bit shakier than it was before, and she gasps at the end when Nagisa, in retaliation, bites her hipbone.  “O-ow!”

“Sorry,” Nagisa, not sorry, says.

“No it’s, that was okay,” Kou replies, her voice breathy.  “I’m...”  She shifts, sitting up and moving away from Nagisa.  Her face is flushed and her hair is wild.  She licks her lips and Nagisa feels a tug in the lower region of his stomach.  “Your turn,” she says determinedly, looking at him.  “Take off your underwear.”

“Off?” Nagisa complains even as he complies, because his briefs have already started to feel more than a little constricting.  “All the way? But you haven’t taken anything off.”

She glares, but he doesn’t see; he’s too busy shimmying out of his underwear and tossing it on the floor.  He’s almost surprised by how hard he is already; he looks at Kou, wondering if he should feel embarrassed.

But she’s not laughing at him.  “Lie down,” she orders.  Before he knows it, Nagisa is doing what she says, lying down on his back.  He watches as she moves to straddle him, and his hips jerk a little as her panties (wet) brush against his cock.

Businesslike, Kou leans down to kiss his neck.  “I should have showed you this first, so you knew what it felt like,” she said before sucking hard.

Nagisa gasps, one of his hands flying up immediately to tangle in her hair.  “Oh,” he says in a small voice.  It feels painful – but nice at the same time.

Kou laughs into his shoulder as she works her way down his body, pressing kisses and occasional bites until Nagisa probably couldn’t say something funny even if he wanted to.  He’s turned into a gasping and squirming mess.

When Kou takes his cock in hand, his toes curl.  She gives it a few lazy strokes and while it’s clear that she isn’t entirely experienced, it’s still novel for Nagisa, being touched in this way.  He curls his fingers into his bedsheets.

“I’m not going to put it in my mouth,” Kou announces, giving Nagisa a serious look.

“Th-that’s okay,” he manages with a dazed looking smile, even though after that announcement he can’t help but imagine what it would _feel_ like, and that makes his cock twitch.  “Should we, I mean, if you keep this up, I’m going to... you know...”  He flushes.  Maybe he should be able to last longer.

Kou takes it in stride, though, even though taking it in stride means letting go of Nagisa, which isn’t exactly what he wants.  “Get the lube,” she says.  “And,” she adds, a hint of uncertainty creeping into her voice, “maybe a towel?  I read–”

Nagisa doesn’t particularly want to hear what she read.  Naked, he pads to the bathroom (which he shares with Naoko; he’s glad no one is home) to grab the bottle of lubricant and a clean towel from the cupboard.  As soon as he returns (quickly, because it’s still March and the house is cold), Kou grabs the towel from him, spreads it out over his sheets, and lies down on top of it.

“Okay,” she says.  “This is the part where you have to listen to me.”

Nagisa pops the cap on the bottle and sniffs it expectantly, hoping for strawberries or something nice; it smells like oil and nothing.  “I have been listening to you,” he points out.

“Well, you have to listen to me even _more_ now,” Kou says bossily.  She’s working her underwear off; Nagisa watches with some fascination as the lace-edged panties slide down her legs and get tossed carelessly to the floor.  She’s... hairier than Nagisa expected, at least compared to what he’d seen on the internet, but obviously Kou wouldn’t exactly have the personal grooming routine of a porn star.

“Hey!” Kou says, and Nagisa realizes she’d been talking while he was distracted.  “Pay attention!”

Nagisa gives a sheepish grin.  “Sorry.”

“I was _saying_ ,” Kou says, glaring at him, “that before you just... put it in, you have to make sure it... will fit.  By stretching.  Um.”  She colors again and looks away.  “So make sure you use a lot of that,” she says, glancing back only to gesture at the oil before focusing again on the bamboo plant on Nagisa’s bedside table.  “And your fingers.”

It takes Nagisa a moment to figure out what she’s saying.  “Okay,” he says, and climbs onto the bed, dribbling a bit of oil onto his fingers and rubbing it around until they’re coated in slippery stuff.  The texture is horrible and he wants to wash it off immediately.  Then he moves closer to the area between Kou’s legs and frowns.  “Um...”

Kou makes an exasperated noise, as if he’s the _only_ inexperienced one here.  (He’s not!  She’s nearly as bad!)  “Here,” she says sliding a hand down her body and to her crotch.  Nagisa watches as she probes with her fingers a moment, then spreads her legs further and slides a finger inside herself.  “There.  That’s what you’re aiming for.”

“I knew that,” Nagisa said, even though they both know it’s untrue.  It’s a little bit daunting even so, to watch as Kou withdraws her hand.

Hesitantly, Nagisa moves his fingers to take the place she just vacated, pressing his index finger into her and eliciting another sharp gasp from Kou.  She’s tight, and ridiculously warm inside.  “Is that okay?” he asks questioningly.

“Y-yes,” Kou says shakily.  She’s propped herself up on her elbows in order to watch.  “Push– push in and out a little,” she suggests, and Nagisa is not sure if her voice is that way because of arousal, embarrassment, or a combination of both.  He complies, pushing his finger in a little further and then withdrawing it, then thrusting again.  Kou makes a small noise.

“Still okay?” Nagisa asks, getting worried by the sorts of noises she’s making.  He can’t tell if they’re from pleasure or pain.

“Y-yes.”  Kou’s voice is breathy.  “Try another finger.  Make sure, make sure there’s plenty of oil.”

Obediently, Nagisa withdraws his hand and pours a generous amount of oil onto his fingers, rubbing it around to coat them (and wrinkling his nose) before very slowly, very carefully pushing two of his fingers into Kou at once.  She’s holding carefully still, and he’s going as slowly and carefully as he can, until they’re all the way in.

“Okay,” Kou says, a little shaky.  “Try pushing in and out again.  Slowly.”  Nagisa complies, increasingly distracted by imagining actually _doing_ this with Kou, not just with his fingers.  He swallows and tries to focus in spite of the increasing arousal uncoiling like a snake in the pit of his stomach.

After a few moments, his actions elicit a moan from Kou, which goes straight to Nagisa’s cock.  “That’s good,” she says appreciatively, reaching down to rub herself with her own hand, lifting her hips a little from the towel.  “Try going faster.”

Nagisa complies, fumbling the cap onto the bottle of oil with his free hand so that he can put it down and start stroking himself with his free hand, unable to resist it any longer.  Kou has her eyes closed as she pants, her hand working furiously; as Nagisa speeds up the pace at which he’s stroking his cock, he also speeds up the pace at which he thrusts into her, until Kou gasps loudly and says, “Stop!”

Almost in spite of himself, Nagisa stops, his breathing fast and his pupils blown.  “What?” he asks, a little irritated.  Slowly, he forces himself to let go of his cock and draw his fingers out of Kou.

Kou is glaring at him, her chest heaving.  “We can’t end it like this,” she points out.  “Otherwise it wouldn’t count, right?”

Reluctantly, Nagisa nods.

“So get your condoms.”

Nagisa gives a very dramatic and put-upon sigh.  “Fine,” he says, moving to his desk, where he stashed the pack of condoms in the back of a drawer.  As he’s rummaging around for them, he adds, “I don’t see why I have to do all the work.”

“Because I’m going to be doing all the work later,” Kou says enigmatically.

Nagisa fishes out a condom, heading back to the bed as he unwraps it.  The wrapper ends up getting tossed on the floor, to be picked up later.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Typically, Kou doesn’t answer.  She’s rearranged things so that she’s sitting up on the bed, holding the bottle of lubricant.  “Okay, lay down.  And put the condom on.”

Nagisa sighs again but does as he’s told, lying down on the towel and rolling on the condom with minimal fumbling.  He watches Kou curiously as she drizzles oil on her hand.  “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready,” she replies, which is about as unclear as her previous statement.  He frowns, and, noticing his confusion, Kou adds, “What I was reading... it says that for your first time, if you’re a girl, it’s better if you’re in control.  To make it less painful.  And there was advice on what... positions you could do, to help.”

Nagisa frowns again, but for a different reason, as Kou scoots closer to him.  “ _Is_ it painful?” he asks.  He likes teasing but he’s hardly sadistic and if this hurts Kou, it will be less enjoyable for him.

Kou shrugs.  “Sort of.  But that’s why we did the, uh, preparation.  And it doesn’t feel _bad_.”  She offers him a grin.  “I kind of like it.”

Whatever response Nagisa might have offered is cut off by Kou wrapping her oiled hand around his cock.  Nagisa makes a surprised noise as she rubs the oil over the condom with a determined expression.  “Okay,” she says, after a few moments where Nagisa is torn between surprise and pleasure.  “Ready?  Stay on your back.  Let me do this.”

“Okay,” Nagisa says, watching with wide eyes as Kou shifts, swinging one leg over him to straddle him.  Keeping her hips raised, she fumbles a little with his cock, holding it upright so she can lower herself onto it.  It’s difficult to keep his neck raised to look down there, so Nagisa shifts his attention to Kou’s face.  She’s concentrated, not meeting his eyes, her lower lip between her teeth.

Since Nagisa’s looking at her face, he doesn’t see the moment when he’s finally actually _inside_ of Kou; instead, he feels a tight heat around his cock.  He gasps.  “Wow.”

Kou turns her attention to him finally, giving him a look that’s both flushed and triumphant.  “Got it,” she says.

Nagisa shifts a little, and each movement is pleasurable.  But he’s not exactly sure what to do.  He can’t really thrust _up_ with Kou’s weight pinning him down like this; anyway, he doesn’t want to do anything sudden that might hurt her.  His dilemma is solved when Kou begins to rock herself back and forth on top of him, which surprises him enough that he whimpers and grabs at her hips.

Kou’s expression is so concentrated that Nagisa’s not even sure she’s enjoying it.  “This is a lot of work,” she grunts.

“But is it nice?” Nagisa asks, his voice breathy.  It’s nice for him, even if her movements are a little heavy and unpredictable.  He’s not used to someone having control over the pacing of everything, and it’s almost as frustrating as it is pleasurable.

“Y-yeah,” Kou says.  She’s starting to fall into a rhythm, even as she lowers her body so that she can place her hands on Nagisa’s shoulders.  It’s a bit painful that she’s supporting herself like that but at the same time the new angle is _much_ better.

“Okay,” Nagisa says and tightens his grip on her hips.  Her hair is falling into his face and tickling his nose.  Absurdly, he wants to sneeze.  “C-can we kiss?” he adds, and the question comes out a bit more shakily than he intended.

“I don’t know if I can balance like that,” Kou says but leans down to attempt to kiss him anyway.  Nagisa moves a hand from her hip up to her back as their lips meet; this is a nice kiss, Nagisa thinks as he feels Kou’s breath on his lips – at least, he thinks that until he feels his cock slipping out of her.

Kou yelps at the same time he does and sits up abruptly, squishing him uncomfortably.  “S-sorry,” she pants as Nagisa makes a series of uncomfortable noises while she rearranges herself on top of him.  “Let me try that again.”  She’s blushing.  “I didn’t know that would happen.”

“It’s okay,” Nagisa says when she’s finally situated herself and he stops feeling like various parts of his body are being pinched or squished.  “I guess that means no more kissing.”

“Not in this position,” Kou agrees breathlessly, laughing.  She settles herself down on his cock again, resuming her rocking motion.

As they get back into the rhythm of things, Nagisa digs his fingers into her hips, arching up.  “I’m gonna– soon–” he says breathlessly, losing a portion of his ability to speak coherently as Kou moves on top of him.  Her eyes look glazed and she’s not really looking at Nagisa anymore; she seems focused on a middle distance.  Nagisa can’t blame her.  This must take a lot of concentration.

Still...  “Kou- _chan_ ,” he whines.  He dislikes being ignored; he thinks it’s understandable in this situation.  “Kou-chan, I’m going to come, d-do you like this?”

Kou’s attention snaps back to him as she processes his words.  “Y-yeah,” she says breathlessly.  She shifts her weight back a little so that she’s more settled on Nagisa’s hips and moves one hand to her crotch in order to rub herself with her fingers.

The motion is nearly enough to send Nagisa over the edge.  Unable to keep still anymore, he writhes underneath her.  “Go faster!” he demands.

If the situation was different, Kou would probably gripe at him and slow down just to spite him.  Now, though, they both want the same thing.  She speeds up the motion of her hips; it’s becoming more irregular again, but Nagisa doesn’t care.  He’s trying to thrust up even though he’s effectively pinned down by Kou’s weight.  Their movements have become messy as they both start focusing more on themselves than their partner.

Nagisa comes first, squeezing his eyes shut and clamping his hands tightly on Kou’s hips.  “Ah, ah, ah, this–” he begins, wanting to express something about how great this feels, but the words get lost as his hips jerk up reflexively a few times with his orgasm.

As Nagisa comes back to himself, he feels Kou clench her muscles around his cock, and gasps at the tightening feeling.  He face is all scrunched up and Nagisa watches, panting, as she rubs herself at a frantic pace, biting her lip and whimpering.  Eventually she shudders through her whole body – Nagisa can _feel_ it – and her motions slow.

She opens her eyes and lets out a breath, looking at Nagisa.  Nagisa laughs – both at her expression, red-faced with glazed eyes, and at the entire situation.

“That was good, Kou-chan,” he says, still breathless.

Kou moves off of him in order to slump onto the bed on her side.  She looks exhausted.  Nagisa, blessed with boundless energy (and also not the one who did any of the work just now), sits up, removing his condom carefully.  He feels oily and gross – but also extremely satisfied, so that all he really ends up doing is tying off the condom and tossing it into the small trash bin at the side of his bed before he flops back down next to Kou.

She has her eyes closed.

“Did you like that, Kou-chan?” Nagisa asks, turning onto his side so he can face Kou.  She’s being boring.  He pokes her in the side.  “Are you asleep?”

“Stop that!” Kou snaps, opening her eyes just to glare as she bats at Nagisa’s hand.  “I’m tired!”

Nagisa grins.  “You did do all the work,” he says.  “I felt really lazy.”

Kou looks suddenly unsure.  “That’s okay, right?”

Nagisa’s grin widens; he flops over onto his back again so that he can look at the ceiling.  “Yeah, I like being lazy,” he says, and stretches out his arms on either side of him.  “You can take a nap, if you want,” he adds, glancing at Kou.  “But if you want to sleep, you have to cuddle with me.  That’s the rule of my bed.”

At first, Nagisa thinks that Kou is going to smack him and then (probably) roll over so that her back is turned.  Instead, she gives a long suffering sigh and moves closer, pillowing her head on Nagisa’s arm and tangling their legs together.  “Fine,” she says.

Nagisa grins.  So that rule works even better on Kou than it does on Rei.  He’ll have to remember that.

Kou has got her eyes closed again.  Nagisa figures that it wouldn’t hurt if he took a nap too.  All he has to worry about is eating dinner eventually; he doesn’t have to keep track of his parents or his sisters since no one is coming home tonight.  He closes his eyes and lets his fingers drift through Kou’s long hair.

He’s not sure when he falls asleep.

**_April_ **

When Kou is annoyed or exasperated, her brows furrow, pulling the tiny scar on her left eyebrow down just a little bit.  Nagisa still hasn’t told her about it (just like he hasn’t told Haru about the freckle pattern on his right shoulder that looks a little like a face, or Rei about the way he tends to squint when he’s thinking hard, so his face is all screwed up during tests).  He doesn’t think he’s going to – anyway, now is not the time.

“And Makoto-senpai thinks I’m _dating_ you!” Kou is shrieking.  “And Haruka-senpai told my _brother_ , and he threatened you with all sorts of nasty things!”

Nagisa’s glad that he didn’t have time to meet in a restaurant, if only because it’s a lot less conspicuous that Kou is yelling when they’re taking a walk by the beach.  The only other people here are mothers with young children, who are also being noisy.

“Well,” he offers, “at least Rin-chan and I are friends? So maybe he’ll forgive me.”

Kou rounds on him.  “You don’t sound very unhappy about this!”

Nagisa shrugs.  He’s not.  In fact, this whole situation is amusing to him rather than embarrassing.  He knew it was going to happen – the other day, Mako had asked him how things were going with Kou, and Nagisa hadn’t bothered to clarify their relationship.  “It doesn’t matter, does it?” he asks.  “We’re not going out.”

“Well,” Kou says archly, shoving her hands in the pockets of her light jacket.  “My mother knows that you’re a boy now.  I got in trouble for _that_.”

“Oh,” Nagisa says.  That’s actually a setback.  “So no more study sessions?” he asks, grinning a little at Kou.  They’ve stopped studying at their study sessions.  Sometimes they talk.  Sometimes they do other things.  It’s actually refreshing, to find someone you get along with and can experiment with, someone who doesn’t make it awkward.

Kou gives him a look.  “ _Not_ unless they’re chaperoned,” she says.

Nagisa laughs.  “There’s always my house, come on!”  It’s further away, but the benefits outweigh the costs.  “Or,” he adds, even though he doesn’t want this to be a viable alternative, “we could stop messing around and you could go after Haru-chan again.”  He sticks his hands in his pockets so Kou can’t see that he’s clenching his fists.

“Um,” Kou says.  Nagisa, who has been staring resolutely out at the ocean, sneaks a look at her.  She’s blushing.  “I’ve sort of given up on that,” she admits.  “I don’t think I like him anymore.”

Nagisa raises his eyebrows.  The news makes him happier than expected.  “Really? Not even with his swimming muscles?  You’ll get to see him in a swimsuit soon.”

“Shut up,” Kou says, taking one hand out of her pocket in order to punch him in the shoulder.  It hurts.  Nagisa winces.  “What about you and Makoto-senpai?”

Nagisa shrugs.  He’s capricious, generally speaking, and that crush was over a long time ago.  “I don’t think he’ll ever like me that way.  I don’t mind.  I’ll survive.”  He pretends as though he’s putting on a brave front.

Characteristically, Kou sees right through him.  “Whatever,” she says, finding the ocean just as interesting as Nagisa did a few moments ago.  “So now what?”

Now what, indeed.  Nagisa could pretend not to know what she’s asking, but that would be far-fetched even for him.  He decides to approach this a different way.  “Do you mind if I call you Gou-chan again?” he asks.  “Because,” he says hastily when she turns to glare, “Gou was the wife of Tokugawa Hidetada, right?  Iemitsu’s mother?”

Kou looks at him in surprise.  “I didn’t know you actually liked history that much...”

Nagisa grins.  “Didn’t you see the show about her?  _Gou_ ,” he says in an announcer voice.  “ _Hime-tachi no Sengoku_.  It was on a few years ago.”

Kou shakes her head.

“Okay,” Nagisa says.  He has a new challenge now.  “We’re going to watch that together!”

After a momentary frown, Kou sighs.  She knows Nagisa well enough to realize that once he’s truly made up his mind, it takes more effort to dissuade him than to go along with him.  “Fine,” she says. “But if I fall asleep and it’s boring, then we have to stop, because I don’t want to waste my time.”

“Okay!” Nagisa repeats brightly.  Those are conditions he can probably ignore, in the end.  He grabs Kou’s hand and pulls her back towards the road.  “Come on!  You should introduce me to your mother.  We can start today!”

“My brother hates historical dramas,” Kou warns, but she laughs anyway and follows, lacing their fingers together as they run, her hair blowing back in the wind.


End file.
